The Role of Attitude towards Safety as a Mediator of Safety Training Effectiveness to Fatalism

Aim: Fatalistic employees take serious risks because they have limited knowledge of risks and accidents, leading them to under estimate the possibility of their occurrence. This research examined the effectiveness of safety training on changing employees’ fatalism with attention to the mediating role of attitude toward safety issues. Methods: 204 employees was selected according to the stratified random sampling method in Isfahan Steel Company, divided randomly into control group (n=103) and experimental group (n=101) and the questionnaires of safety attitude and fatalism were applied as data collection instruments. The data was collected before intervention, and educational intervention was then executed in four 90-minute sessions over four days. One month after intervention, post-test was performed and the collected data was analyzed using descriptive indexes, t- and F-tests. Findings: Results show that there was a significant statistical difference in average numbers of attitude toward safety issues and fatalism before and after training intervention (p < 0.01). Also, mediation analysis indicated attitude toward safety issues mediated the effect of safety trainings on fatalism (p > 0.05). Therefore, safety training only by promoting workers’ safety attitudes can change the fatalistic beliefs among employees. Conclusion: By understanding relationship between fatalism and safety attitude, it should be possible to improve the training of employees, such that are less likely to attribute accidents to chance or fate.